Subject: Re: birds at night
Date: Mar 27 13:50:19 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


About the only effect of lights on bird feeding that I have seen is that
American Robins will feed under street lights (I've seen it on the UW
campus) when it is entirely dark. I'm not sure if they do this in the
middle of the night or only in the very early morning, when I have seen it
several times. The big eyes of thrushes are probably adaptations to
feeding at low light intensities, and earthworms come to the surface at
night, two things that make this particular observation not so surprising.

Nighthawks commonly feed around street lights, along with bats,
occasionally other nightjars, and even owls. At a Costa Rican field
station, I saw a pair of Black-and-white Owls come to a light to feed on
the bats that were attracted there!

On the other hand, this sort of behavior is obviously very rare in birds in
general.

In the short time during which I typed this (yes, I can type and look out
the window), *THREE* adult Red-tailed Hawks flew over heading north, all
with crows marking their passage. A coincidence, or a migratory wave?
It's good that someone remains to record the urban bird scene while so many
others report their findings from the hinterlands.....(sob).

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416